Show musings

Things have really been going well with my horse. I've been steadily increasing the total riding time, so now we're up to about 35 minutes of work. That's really pretty good considering my horse used to work for an hour each session.

I've also added another line of half-pass at the trot, and two lines of half-pass at the canter each direction. I'm hoping to get my trainer to video us so I can update my Video Glossary with half-pass. I also need to get her to video shoulder-in and haunches in, two more movements that my horse is now doing at each workout.

I'm feeling him get stronger every day. It's really quite thrilling. Our lessons are very productive and I'm starting to fix a lot of bad habits that I've picked up over the years. It's hard work but I'm really enjoying it. Sure, there are times when I feel lazy or tired after working all day and just don't feel much like riding. But then I dig deep and find the energy to ride as best I can, knowing that both me and my horse will be better for it. I also know that we'll never get back in the show ring without lots of hard work.

Yes, I'm thinking about showing. I know I've said that I'm not going to make plans or decide what shows I'm going to do until he's ready to go, but it's just so hard not to look into the future. So, my hope is to be able to go to the Arabian Region 14 Championships next year in Kentucky. It's in July, so we have a whole year to prepare. It would be nice to go to a show before the Championships, and we will if he's ready. If not, we can just qualify at the pre-show. It's always possible that we won't qualify at the pre-show, but frankly, it's not hard to qualify for Regionals at the upper levels of dressage. We'd need a score of 50% or better. Now, I know it's possible that any ride can turn into a train wreck and you can get a really bad score. I know I've had one score of 47%, but that wasn't on Kaswyn. However, if I didn't think we could lay down at least a 60% I wouldn't even enter the show. So if we enter it will be because I'm confident that the scores will be adequate for qualification.

We could also qualify with points at the pre-show. The point qualifications only work at Arabian shows, not open dressage shows. With open dressage shows you have to use scores to qualify for Arabian Regionals. The way the points work is that you get one point for every horse you place higher than in the class, plus one point for yourself. For example, if there are 5 horses in the class, then first place gets 5 points, second place gets four points, etc. If you are the only one in the class and manage to finish the class, then you get a point. To qualify for Regionals we'd need one point. I think we can do it.

Stay tuned for updates on my Video Glossary of Dressage Movements. I'm hoping to have new videos soon!